Posts by James W
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I should note if I get the time I'll add a new graphic to the site showing these results.
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I'm the guy who did the 'Selling the News' infographic Shayne Currie was talking about on the show. I'm pleased he took the project in the way it was intended and was respectful of the results.
As to his contention that the Herald had improved since the redesign, I went back and looked at the data. He's right: Crime decreases from 10.5% of all stories before the redesign to 6.4% afterwards, which is a big change. Other significant results: Entertainment drops from 15.2% to 13.5%, Tragedy goes from 6.2% to 5.1%, and Sport falls from 12.3% to 11.5%. Lifestyle, however, increases from 11.1% to 13.9%, Social Issues drops slightly from 6.0% to 5.1%, and Self Promotion rises from 5.3% to 10.1% (which makes sense as they were promoting their new look and features).
I'd caution that these results are based on a smaller sample size than the rest of the year (Jan-9 Sep for pre redesign, 10 Sep-Dec for post redesign) and therefore aren't as robust as the overall results. But it seems like he's correct and the Herald is on a better path.
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God, this is so much better than the Herald's whitewash of an obituary. I'm really not a fan of ignoring a person's flaws just because they've died; you don't need to dwell on them, but at least be honest.
Thanks, Russell, a really well-written piece.
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Hard News: Cultures and violence, in reply to Angus Robertson,
Everyone's violent crime rate is going down, especially in the OECD, but America is still way more violent than anyone else:
http://www.kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2012/07/20/america-is-a-violent-country/
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Mother Jones has done some good work on the facts of mass shootings:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/mass-shootings-investigation
(Most surprising fact: most of the guns were acquired legally.)
And of course, Charlie Brooker's Newswipe on the media coverage of mass shootings, which we trot out everytime this happens because it's still so on the money:
It comes down to three things: gun control, mental health, and the media. You have to make it harder for those who want to do this to do it as effectively by limiting their access to semi-automatic weapons; you have to make more help available to those who need it, and monitor them better; and the media has to act more responsibly when reporting these things and stop turning the murderers into heroes (we all know Kebold's name, who can name a victim?).
Tackle one of these things without the others and I don't see the problem going away. But with the divisive politics in the States, good luck tackling any of them.
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Fran O'Sullivan on Facebook:
John sticks it to the former Alliance staffer Bryce Edwards whose Politics Daily is carried on the Herald website giving him reach to an influential audience he has yet to earn.
Later, she uses the term "pinko" un-ironically.
It's funny when you realise "journalists" like Armstrong or O'Sullivan view themselves as members of some exclusive club us plebs wouldn't understand so don't you dare criticise and god don't you know how HARD this job is? It's like, oohhhh, you're completely clueless, aren't you?
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Is the theH sponsoring an expansion of our train system then?
There's been a guy giving away free copies of the new Herald every morning at my train station. So, possibly.
I like the new design. Feels much more modern and appropriate for the year 2012. The content's a little squashed in there, especially once there's three ads on a page, but – and this is coming from someone who never has anything nice to say about the Herald – I think they should be applauded for trying to make the newspaper a bit more exciting and vital. It even feels like their hard news quotient has gone up since the change, but maybe that's just perception.
What I find most unexpected is Shayne Currie's beloved top strip of houses, tits and sharks has now gone. I figured that wouldn't matter because at the new size the whole front page is "above the fold", and he can run his crowd-pleasers anywhere, but every dairy and petrol station I've seen the Herald in has stacked the paper sideways so you can't read it without turning your head. This feels like a big error, especially for an editor who's obsessively aware of the need of a hook to get causal buyers to pick up the daily paper.
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Give away the news and sell the analysis? Thus, read for free the bare bones news about the Kiwi deaths in Afghanistan, pay to read the in-depth story and analysis by xyz.
Yeah, this is the only way it can work, because a hundred sites will carry the same news story. It's the analysis by writers you like and trust you (presumably) pay for.
Presentation is important. It's like, The AV Club's Newswire features pop culture news you could find on any number of sites, but it's Sean O'Neal's snarky tone that makes me come back to read it everyday. I'd pay for that.
Have you heard of MATTER, Russell? I contributed to the Kickstarter. In their words:
MATTER will focus on doing one thing, and doing it exceptionally well. Every week, we will publish a single piece of top-tier long-form journalism about big issues in technology and science. That means no cheap reviews, no snarky opinion pieces, no top ten lists. Just one unmissable story.
They are aiming to charge 99c per story – see here for more info.
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Hard News: Christchurch: Is "quite good"…, in reply to Ed Muzik,
Woah, hold up. You know how you could avoid playing in 3 degrees? Play games in the afternoon. Oh, Sky won’t let you? Then why the hell aren’t they paying for the goddamn stadium, rather than ratepayers.
Good point. And since it's the NZRU who get all that money from Sky, why don't the they pay for it?
BTW, all this stadium talk reminds me of the superb SonicsGate documentary, which shows how fucked up the whole city-paying-for-stadium-to-subsidise-professional-sport circus can get:
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When I was in Christchurch a few weeks ago, I heard a lot of mumblings about people wanting a covered stadium, but the Council had put the kibosh on it. Try going to the rugby in minus three degrees weather (as I did) and you soon understand why it'd be a great thing to have. Whether it's worth the cost is another matter.
